Menstruation 101: Reality Of Period Practices In Rural India

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Women in rural India have been resorting to their own ways for many years. There are methods that are different from what we are familiar with. Sinu Joseph of ‘Mythri Speaks’ gives us an insight into menstrual practices in rural India.

The narrative on menstruation is changing and more awareness is being created on this topic to help first time bleeders understand the concept. The urban narrative on this topic is often laced with the word’s stigma, taboo, pain, traditional / cultural practices and the like which often create a negative attitude towards it. But is it the same rurally?

Sinu Joseph, founder of the NGO Mythri Speaks, disagrees there is a stigma surrounding menstruation. “From my observations on interacting with women across different sections of society and various communities across India, I have found that the attitude towards menstruation has turned negative or indifferent as women moved away from culturally centered ideas of menstruation”. Sinu learnt that rural and tribal women who have not been through a formal education system or have had minimal exposure to urban way of living, exhibit a positive and sometimes (seemingly) exaggerated enthusiasm towards menstruation as nature’s gift to women.

“My observation on the variations in attitude towards menstruation was corroborated when my team and I undertook a study (unpublished) of 1035 women across four districts in Karnataka, We found that overall 57.77% of those interviewed felt positive about menstruation, 23.38% felt indifferent and 18.84% had a negative attitude towards menstruation. Majority of women interviewed expressed a positive outlook towards menstruation, breaking the stereotypical assumption that Indian women associate shame with menstruation”, says Sinu.

Rural women would often smile, sometimes feel shy, but mostly say that menstruation was a positive occurrence in their life. In stark contrast, the urban women I interviewed would arrogantly shoot back a question asking ‘why on earth would anyone feel positive towards menstruation?’

“Stepping aside from the popular narratives which focus on menstrual products, our work has explored native methods and cultural practices around menstruation”, reveals Sinu.

Mythri Speaks has been dedicated to the cause of propagating women’s issues since 2014, and has earned its reputation as a grass-root development organization, based in Karnataka. With menstrual & reproductive health being one of its important programs, the organization has oriented thousands of rural adolescent girls and women through awareness workshops, across the states of Karnataka, Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, and Tamil Nadu.

Taking a cue from her own unawareness and ignorance about menstruation in her teens and left with many unanswered questions, Sinu thought it was important to propagate menstrual awareness among girls and boys to help them understand it better.

Their Animation film ‘Mythri’ on menstruation, has reached over 4 million adolescent girls in government schools. Their content is available free of cost in 9 languages and has been used by governments, educators, researchers, NGOs, medical professionals and others.

Over the years, Sinu has worked extensively in this sphere. When it comes to picking the right sanitary product, she believes, “Women are sensible enough to make the right choices according to their circumstances”. Her experience and studies has made her realize that menstrual hygiene is important but at the same time, this can be maintained by various sanitary products. Studies show that linking menstrual hygiene to cervical cancer or any other menstrual disorder is a myth.

“The only thing bad menstrual hygiene can give you is a bacterial infection”, she says. Women in rural India have been resorting to their own ways for many years. “You should keep an open mind when you come across methods that are different from what you are familiar with. The focus should be on whether or not women are being affected by the method they follow rather than force them to change practices just for the sake of social engineering.”

Traditionally, Indian women used cotton cloth during menstruation, because they preferred it and not because of reasons such as inability to afford sanitary napkins or non-availability of such products. Even now, many women in India prefer cloth to any other commercially available menstrual product. It is necessary to understand why they have such a preference, especially when products such as sanitary napkins and tampons offer extra-long protection and lesser chances of staining.

Rural women have certain challenges while using sanitary products- main being its disposal. Cloth, therefore, becomes their most preferred option. In cases where women might complain of rashes, we must enquire about the type of cloth they use, the frequency of changing, the method of washing, drying and storing cloth. Knowledge on proper use can be given if we find that some of the practices might be causing problems. In some villages in Karnataka, women can now purchase a red cloth called “Date Batte” (Date refers to periods, and Batte means cloth) from the grocery shops. This is a soft cloth, quite suitable for menstrual blood absorption. Cloth pads are another option provided women use loose cloth that can be opened and dried in the sun. The stitched cloth pads being sold by NGOs might cause more problems because they cannot be opened up and exposed to full sunlight.

Tampons and menstrual cups require insertion of the product into the vagina using hands, it is necessary that high levels of hygiene and cleanliness is maintained. Most girls and women in villages do a lot of physical work with their hands – tilling the land, sowing seeds, harvesting crops, milking and bathing cattle, feeding animals, etc. As a result their hands are not the most clean and usually carry germs/bacteria. And this can be a concern.

Nowadays, small scale sanitary napkin manufacturing units have sprung up in rural areas. Such units promote the idea of locally manufactured low cost sanitary napkins as well as generate employment opportunities. “But these sanitary napkins crumble easily, are of poor quality and not much cheaper than existing commercial ones”, says Sinu. Also, very often the standards and tests prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards for Sanitary Napkins are not even assessed. Basic hygiene standards and sanitization of the product are not followed in the small-scale manufacturing units.

“We have come across quite a few women in villages who do not use any of the above products and bleed freely”, she says. “The women who bleed freely sometimes wear two undergarments, while some others use two underskirts and keep wiping the trickling blood with the skirts”.

Poor hygiene might result in rashes and bacterial infection and could cause a problem with white discharge. However, most menstrual disorders like dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia, PCOS, endometriosis, amenorrhea, etc. have no proven connection to poor hygiene. With every product, there is a possible chance of bacterial infection if not used correctly. “Dismissing a product or promoting another is no guarantee of preventing rashes and infection. Instead, knowledge on the right way of using a product needs to be shared”, she adds.

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Five years ago, when my Bengali friend married her Muslim boyfriend against her family’s wishes, half of the North Kolkata was on rage and kept calling their affair another example of love jihad.

It took her more than two years to find acceptance from her kin, but they have been happy since ever!

Yesterday, when I read about Gulnaz Khatoon, it instantly hit a part of me — and I asked myself if my fellow countrymen would again call it a love jihad?

I think no!

Because this time, it was a Muslim victim, and the accused was a Hindu. And probably, this is why, even after more than 15 days of the incident, no legal actions have been taken yet!

And with every word I write, my heart aches by thinking of that young, innocent 20YO Gulnaz who was about to get married in just four months but was succumbed to her brutal and extensive burn injuries after she was set on fire by men who had been allegedly stalking and threatening her for a long time.

“She was to be married off in just four months. But Satish Kumar Rai, son of Vinay Rai, and Chandan Kumar Rai, son of Vijay Rai, burnt my daughter to death in Vaishali. She herself said so in a video before she died. We have nobody to speak for us,” says the mother of the 20YO deceased Gulnaz.

“She had objected to the sexual harassment and stalking they had been subjecting her to for three months,” said her younger sister. “When my sister used to go and dump garbage, these men would harass her. On October 30 at 5 PM, Chandan Kumar and Satish Kumar poured kerosene on her and set her ablaze,” Gulnaz’s brother added.

Gulnaz belonged to a simple family — her mother was a tailor; her brother was working in Patna. She was soon to be married and life, hopefully, had been admirable for her until these men started troubling her.

The saddest part of this incident is that the men who harassed, attacked and murdered this young Bihar girl was clearly named by her and her family but have not been arrested yet. A viral video on social media can be seen where the victim had clearly pointed out the accused’ names, but there have been no legal actions so far.

To make it worse, the media have gotten no response from the local police or Bihar’s re-elected Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. For like every horrific incident, #JusticeForGulnaz is trending online, but no one can see the pain and agony behind Gulnaz’s mother who has been pleading to the government and authorities for justice for over two weeks now.

“They had told her they would kill her, they doused her with kerosene and lit a match,” her mother shared — for someone whose young daughter had been literally burnt alive, one could not even imagine the way she would be holding herself.

The incident happened in the Vaishali district of Bihar, but it is another tight slap on the entire country’s face — and on those who have been whining on how love jihad is exploiting and destroying young people’s lives.

And if you think that this is only a case of religion and so-called love jihad then let me tell you that the accused men carry caste names of the dominant community.

The incident happened in the Chandpuram village of Vaishali district under Desari police station after which the victim was admitted to PMCH in Patna and 15 days later was succumbed to her injuries.

As per a report by ABP News Online, the accused, Satish Yadav, is a known goon of the village who used to harass the victim. He, along with his two companions, caught Gulnaz near her house and set her on fire after she complained about him.

“They had been saying they would kill me for days. I had told them not to stand here [stalk], they said we have bought the road, they poured kerosene on me and lit a match. He is Vinay Rai’s son,” says Gulnaz in her video statement.

The social media users, again, are divided, and some of them are calling out the hypocrites and asking if this would also be called a love jihad since the accused in this case is a Hindu and not a Muslim. At the same time, a lot of people are staying numb as the victim is a Muslim from a poor family and the accused are from a dominant caste.

Much like the Hathras incident, the local police here too did not take any action even after getting the information soon after the attack and reaching the hospital. As per the sources, they met the victim and registered her statement also but did not file an FIR until the victim’s video statement started getting viral on social media.

So there was no action taken by the local police for the first four days, and even after the victim’s death, no arrests have been made so far.

A classic (yes that’s what I would it) case of religion, caste, dominance and minority, Gulnaz’s case is not new — except that she is a Muslim. Her case is not first and won’t be the last also — and this will keep happening until the government and authorities get themselves out of this quagmire of caste and religion.

Sometimes Dalit, sometimes Muslim, and sometimes minor — no matter what the location or who the government is — it’s always a woman losing her life, her family crying their heart out for justice and a bunch of filthy accused people who roam freely around the city!

Now I ask you, would you call it a love jihad? #JusticeForGulnaz #Shame